Seth Curry had never really gotten a legitimate shot to play in the NBA for a full season until this year. Curry had such a good summer league and preseason that the Sacramento Kings had no choice but to keep him on their final 15 man roster. Curry has always been known as a guy that can shoot the ball extremely well but could do little else. Head coach George Karl tends to disagree now though as he sees Curry as the team's best defender, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
Curry was undrafted out of Duke University and spent a lot of time in the D-League where he worked on not being so one dimensional. The reason Curry wasn't in the NBA until this year was because of his lack of position and lack of defensive prowess but now it seems like a strength, at least according to Karl.
"Seth is a guy that, I didn't think I'd be saying this a month ago, is our best defensive player. But I give him credit that in the Dallas game he stayed on the court because he was the one guy who could control the ball. And Thursday night, even though I don't think he had a good defensive game, he was probably the best guy in there for us," said Karl.
Saying that Curry is the team's best defensive player sounds like high praise but in reality the team is extremely weak at on-ball defense that it is like picking the best of the worst. Earlier in the season Karl declared James Anderson the team's best perimeter defender and now Anderson is out of the rotation so he seems to change his mind quite a bit. When you look at the metrics Curry has not been all that good on defense as the Kings allow 112 points per 100 possessions when Curry is on the floor. Admittedly that isn't the best indicator of a player's individual defense, but his individual numbers aren't pretty either as he has been a net negative on defense so far this season.
Curry's minutes have been extremely sporadic this season, especially lately, but Karl has said he wants to get him more time. The fact that he sees Curry as his best defender should only lead to more minutes because Curry is a very good offensive player as he is making 42 percent of his threes. The 25-year-old guard is aware that defense is hit best path to consistent playing time and according to Karl he is headed in the right direction.
